Tag: blog comments

It’s 2017 and by now everyone who is anyone knows that user-generated content is important. If you have a blog, a website or an online store, you are probably pretty focused on getting good reviews, replying to customer feedback and making sure you engage with your customers (and if you aren’t then its time you start!). But while UGC is a clear backbone to any modern day business it is also a tool that continues to change and evolve alongside the digital landscape. So what’s next for UGC?

Time to own UGC?

Today the majority of UGC is owned by social media networks. This means while brands are winning short term with hashtag campaigns or viral content, the social media networks like SnapChat and Twitter are the real winners. The future is likely to change this and delves deeper into UGC – meaning companies will spend more time and resources capturing metadata and leveraging UGC beyond individual short terms campaigns and into the realms of long-term meaningful customer relationships.

If UGC is a huge trend already, it looks set to grow even bigger and hasn’t even come close to its peak. We can be sure that brands will continue to invest efforts in encouraging, nurturing and fostering the right kind of UGC (because unlike other marketing channels you can’t completely control it unless you fake it and that basically destroys its nature). UGC is an organic concept that needs to be grown in the right ways and in the right environment. But once you succeed in growing it, how do you harvest what you have? In order for brands to really harness the amount of UGC they need to stand out, it looks likely that aggregation apps and platforms will gain popularity. Collecting the right UGC is an extremely powerful marketing tool.

UGC moves to other mediums

For a long time UGC has been almost exclusively focused on text. Though it has branched out into the worlds of video and images, there is still a long way to go. The future looks set to take UGC into totally new territory like VR. So how can UGC go together with virtual reality? Well, the future will be increasingly about a co-experiential approach where UGC and interactions are encouraged, shared across and leveraged through different mediums. As content moves over to VR and AR so do user interactions (or at least some of them).

But if VR-based UGC still seems a long way off there are more approachable technologies that are already available to give your business the kick it needs. UGC can be the most mundane thing in the world, but it can also be your biggest asset. Moving away from text to new technologies like voice tech can help to increase user engagement and create an environment of interactions that is more personal, more meaningful and easier to access than simply sitting and typing out a really long comment or message.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

Analytics have always been a crucial channel for understanding customer behavior and learning to do things better. But new trends show an increased focus on real-time high-level analytics. So what does this mean? Basically mapping and understanding different customer actions and profiles on a micro as well as the macro level is becoming more important. It’s not enough just to have data, the data needs to happen now and in a way that can be easily transformed into actionable items to constantly improve customers’ UX of your e-commerce store. There needs to be data on every conversion point and a way of following each and every path a customer can take.

A move towards Asia

For a long time, the focus has been on the US. It is a huge, growing and central market to e-commerce. However, that doesn’t mean it will be the place to focus energies forever. Right now the US market is still growing, however, it is reaching a saturation point, which means we are likely to see a plateau in the market soon. So what’s next for e-commerce? Well, the Asian market is beginning to boom, and in particular, China. So what does that mean for e-commerce store owners? Well, now is a good time to go global and begin targeting the Asian market (or at least begin thinking about it). Of course, this isn’t a strategy that will work for everyone since a plateauing US market doesn’t mean a bad market. Everything depends on your business and your customers. And while there is no need for physical infrastructure when it comes to expanding operations, there are a variety of other challenges (cultural, languages and more).

The worlds of social media and commerce are intersecting. With places like Facebook Marketplace, buying online doesn’t even mean logging out of social media or browsing specific websites or apps. But this trend means more than just marketplaces on social media; it is a move towards e-commerce marketplaces or stores inside of nested social media sites. The good news is that this trend makes it even easier to leverage social media brand ambassadors and user-generated content.

Online reviews move to other mediums

For a long time online reviews have been crucial to not only promoting online businesses, but to gaining the basic trust needed to bring customers to a store and complete a purchase. While they are gaining volume, popularity and trust, the medium of reviews is only now beginning to widen. At the beginning reviews were all about text, but today you can move online comments to much more personal and interactive mediums like video, gifs and even voice to keep customers engaged and shopping for longer.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

Digital advertising is everywhere and in a million different channels. If you are online at any given time, chances are you are basically being bombarded by advertising banners, ads, retargeting email campaigns, clickbait, sponsored social media posts and more. There is so much advertising “noise” out there that most people ignore or at least block a lot of it out. Most of it ends up taking on a status of background noise, but there are always posts that stand out from the crowd and make an impact. To make sure you keep making an impact with your advertising, find out what the future of advertising has in store and how to change things to make them more relevant and impactful.

Ok, it might not send like the best way to launch a list of futuristic online ad trends, but its true: online ads are annoying people more than ever. Our brains can’t always filter them out so more and more people are turning to online ad blockers and pop-up stoppers. The worst culprit here are preroll ad, the auto-play is perceived as both annoying and intrusive. But don’t worry – it’s not all bad news. While generic ads are annoying, the future of advertising is all about pinpoint targeting. The trick is honing into your target market, learning as much about them as possible and targeting them with non-intrusive native ads. Context is also incredibly important – if they are looking at one specific brand continuously but are telling all their friends how they hate the brand’s new product, advertising that product might not be the way to go. The best ads need to tap into all of a users data – who they are, what they like and what they say.

The future is interactive

The days of static ads are coming to an end, and interactive content is gaining traction. The future of ads is all about maximizing user-experience and curating something that is both immersive and interactive. People are bored of banner ads. So what will grab their attention? Well, simple things can work wonders. Instead of a form asking for your users’ name and email, try a gamified quiz. If your brand is all about health food then use infographics to encourage your users to engage. Converting a user doesn’t have to be a boring experience.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization through native advertising. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

Customer reviews are not just static data sat on a web page. They are a dynamic way to interact and engage with customers and the platform you use to do this on is crucial. The right reviewing platform lets you collect reviews, and engage with your customers, understand data and trends, and ultimately turn reviews into two important tools. The first is actionable items that can be improved (and this often comes from negative reviews), the second is positive brand data that can be leveraged in campaigns throughout digital media channels. A good reviewing platform also helps filter out spam and irrelevant content so that you can spend your time focusing on key insights.

The transparency economy

Accenture refers to our digital age as the transparency economy where consumers expect to have the full information from manufacturers, retailers, providers, especially what other people think. Accenture also refers to reviews as a method of “unifying and amplifying the voice of the consumer”. Reviews are therefore not one offs but a type of content that builds trust through transparency and can be aggregated and used strategically. More than this, reviews are not just an add-on to an online store or a purchasing experience, the reviews themselves have become embedded in the user experience and are a key tool for gaining data (both for business owners and for potential customers).

A shift in balance

According to Deloitte, reviews are a powerful tool, which has actually shifted the power balance of the entire sales process. The proliferation of easy to access online stores has created a tyranny of choice that leads customers to rely heavily on reviews, price comparisons, and rankings. It has created disruption in the entire way we purchase and empowered customers with both access and information. To get ahead of the trend and make smart business decisions, companies must focus on creating a coherent customer journey through all the different touch points with their business. This means reviews are not an isolated factor but one part of a unified “sales story”.

Diversifying media

For so long reviews and the insights we have gleaned from them have come through text and text-based analytics. However, we know that using other forms of media (like images, video and voice) improves customer engagement, differentiates products and really helps a business to stand out from the crowd. With new technologies available, now is the time to migrate to areas like voice. Voice is a much more personal mode of communication and can be used to increase customer interactions, conversions and ultimately improve sales.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

One of the best ways to keep users engaged with your brand is to produce great content. But what makes content great? Obviously, it has to be interesting and insightful. It should be compelling (through visuals and audio as well as just text) and it should tell a story that is relevant to your brand. But all this relies on a basis of trust. This means that the first step to getting your users to engage is to create content that is trustworthy. So, how can you take your existing content and make it even more trustworthy? Here are some simple tips.

Having a corporate brand might be effective for some things, but when it comes to content, writing in a personal way is actually most effective. Readers want to connect with individuals not with a corporate entity so share names, photos and even bios to add credibility to your content. To create a relationship between reader and author, strive to make what you write informal enough to appear conversational but formal enough to be professional – it’s a careful balance. Ultimately the ratio of informal to formal depends on your brand and your goals (as well as on your content channels), so think about it and listen to what your readers have to say (especially in the form of user comments and feedback).

Choose ads wisely

Be careful what you do with advertising! Too many ads can alienate your users. Auto-play ads often feel overwhelming and intrusive. People don’t want to be talked at by your blog, and this is especially true of Millenials. But on the flip side, advertising is still very important and certainly a major part of most of the today’s blogs. So how can advertising be leveraged in a way that is trustworthy? Well, native ads that fit seamlessly onto your website or blog are a great way to go. Another way is to focus on building a community rather than simply advertising. Allowing people to engage and interact with your content is often more likely to lead to a conversion than pre-roll ads or intrusive banners.

Make your design flawless

You may think content is all about the words you choose, but if you think about it, people judge brands on visuals as much as on actual content. If a storefront is cracked and broken, you are probably less likely to purchase there. The same is true of the online world. If you have a website from the 1980’s, people will be less likely to trust your content. So what can you do? Well, if you haven’t already, now might be the time to invest in a top-notch web designer. But failing that, there are tones of free web design services out there. Even a few hours of work and a few great images can make a huge difference to user perceptions of your brand.

Let your users sing your praise

It’s all well and good creating a trustworthy platform, look, feel and even working on amazing content with statistics and quotes from experts. However, there is only so far you can go alone. The real mark of trustworthy content is user engagement and interaction. If users trust you they will want to join the conversation, and your content will go from static story to dynamic discussion. So how can you help this happen? It’s pretty simple – a trustworthy comments platform that filters spam but lets your users have a voice is a great tool for making your content more trustworthy and keeping people on your site for longer.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

We are moving away from the era of brash-in-your-face tech with users brandishing enormous touchscreen phones and large touchscreen watches to something altogether subtler. The future will be all about seamless tech that blends into users lives and styles. Think fashion tech rather than bulky functional tech. This is already beginning with wearables and tracking devices like the ever thinner and sleeker Fitbits on the market. Devices are becoming more like part of an overall style and fashion accessory than the obtrusive add-ons of yesteryear.

Source: https://pixabay.com/en/photos/voice/

The year of voice tech

In many ways, 2017 has been heralded as the year of voice tech where many tech giants have shifted (or are shifting) their UI away from visual and tactile interfaces to audio ones. And just think about the benefits – audio means you can go hands-free. You can use your tech on the go, while walking, driving, multitasking. You never need to pause and stare down at a screen. The future will undoubtedly bring us a higher volume of more complex applications for voice tech as well as other hands-free interactions – think gesture technology and more. Touchscreens may never completely disappear but other interactions will become increasingly important.

Augmented sound

While augmented reality is a known quantity, the surge of what are sometimes termed “hearables” like Apple’s wireless headphones, are curating an experience that is essentially augmented sound. Without worrying about connectivity or proximity to our phones or device, the future looks likely to deliver augmented sound experiences, where we can overlay sound on our daily lives much the same way SnapChat overlays flower filters on ordinary photographs. Digital noise can be the key to creating new and fascinating soundscapes to enrich our daily lives.

Everything goes digital

We might be used to wearables and an overall concept of smart homes and the IoT, but the future looks likely to make everything digital. You might already control your air conditioning through voice but think about controlling your coffee maker the same way, ordering shopping through your voice-controlled fridge or having an army of voice controlled robots clean your house without leaving a trace.

Voice comments

While many technologies still have a long way to come, there are some emerging voice technologies that are already here, strong and ready to be leveraged. If we turn to one of the most well-known places on the Internet – the comments section (of any article, website, or social media conversation) we see an old fashioned text-based interaction. The future is about voice tech – and voice comments allow users to go hands-free while also sharing a more human and personal interaction.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

More than three-quarters of Germans use the Internet in some way during their day. Research has shown that 75% of them are signed up to at least one social media network and use it for around one-quarter of their online time. Future growth is set to continue with a solid uptake from the younger generation, with 90% of 14-year-olds to 29-year-olds registered on at least one social media platform. The most popular networks are listed below according to the number of users.

Facebook

Google+

Xing

Wer-kennt-wen

LinkedIn

MySpace

Source: https://pixabay.com/en/photos/representation/

Why is Germany a laggard?

Germany is a laggard in social media compared to neighboring European countries. Compared to the UK’s 89%, Germany falls behind in social media usage. Germany ranks below the European average, with just 42% of its population regularly using social networks. The low social media usage is linked to Germany’s large aging population. The younger generation tends to be the ones that drive social media usage. Germany’s Statistisches Bundesamt reported that the number of residents aged 60 and older has risen consistently since 1950, and the number under age 20 has steadily declined.

In Germany, it is uncommon to speak to or add people one has just met via social media. The German culture does not promote the friendly social media attitude that some neighboring European countries have. In order to gain a like from a German, you really need to tailor your content so that it speaks to that particular demographic.

Another reason Germany may fall behind their European countries in Facebook usage is because Germans tend to use fake names. Although Facebook insists that users list their real names, many Germans still abbreviate or use fake names due to privacy concerns. This fixation with privacy often makes it difficult to trace and connect with people.

How to engage the German market

The German market is undeniably a tough market to tap into, however; it is a growing market with huge potential. Although the reasons above make it sound like it is difficult to advertise on social media, there are various innovative ways to do so. Tailor-made, carefully curated and highly personalized content is the way to transform an online experience into a strategy for success.

Moving from writing to voice

While there is a great deal of written communication in online media in Germany, one way to create content that stands out and has a personal touch is to turn to other mediums such as voice. Heyoya offers an innovative way to create a tailor-made online experience for users. Heyoya is a voice comments and reviews platform that helps to increase user-engagement and unique user-generated content through voice.

So how does it work?

It’s actually pretty simple: when surfing the web, users can respond to your articles, events and more by recording a voice comment or review through the Heyoya widget. You can also use Heyoya to upload your own voice content to your website. This is a great way to leave messages for your users, talk to them and hear what they have to say! Ultimately, by using the Heyoya widget, you can better leverage your comments sections to increase user engagement and create higher quality content, keeping users on your site for longer.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization.For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

With over 600 million users, WeChat is the most popular messaging app in China. Voice messaging is extremely popular in China, so popular that over 84% of WeChat users use it for voice messaging. And while in most other countries text remains ahead of voice, in China, a voice is the clear market leader.

There are several added values to sending a voice message over text. It’s more personal, more authentic, you can flirt more easily or express how annoyed or bored or tired you are. There are no autocorrect embarrassments since you can delete the recording if you aren’t happy with it, and you can play the messages over and over again. Voice also allows for a clearer understanding of messages thanks to the intonations we use naturally while speaking and ultimately allows for better quality conversations. And finally, voice messages allow you to go hands-free and even help you save time.

Voice takes over China

So, what makes voice work so well in China? Most Chinese people would probably say it’s because the language is much harder to type than speak and therefore simply takes longer to type than record a message. In China, rather than typing words users are most likely to type the letters that approximate the sound of the correct ideogram. WeChat (or whatever app is being used) will then offer a list of ideograms that pop up. Once that happens, the user needs to choose the correct one to describe what they want to say most accurately, both in meaning and in pronunciation. Though faster than hand writing, this is clearly still very time-consuming.

Another reason voice works so well is down to Chinese culture. The Chinese often describe their culture as “renao” or what foreigners would refer to as “loud and lively”, and this makes it acceptable to be enthusiastic about being loud in public, making voice messages a culturally acceptable and convenient way to communicate. And just like there are informal rules for texting, the same goes for voice messages with known do’s and don’ts, which are influenced by factors such as if the user has an educational background or not. For example, a well-educated or middle-class individual will send voice messages only if the information is too complicated to write or explain via text. If it’s simple enough, they’ll prefer to type it. And voice messages are not suitable to send to everyone; they are a personal and emotional medium and because of this, some people think they should only be used with close friends and loved ones.

Voice today

In an increasingly networked world where smartphones rule the world and social connections are a necessity, it makes sense to rely on voice tools. They can help people communicate from across the globe while still keeping the intimacy and human connection with friends and family intact, even if they are thousands of kilometers apart. And if you have a blog or online store, voice can help tools can help take your content to the next level.

Heyoya brings voice to your website

Choose voice and add Heyoya to your site to create a more engaging user experience. We already know that voice is popular in China, that it is time saving, efficient and personal. If you have an existing blog or website then you probably know how important comments are. Enabling user comments through comment platforms helps retain users and improves your search ranking. In fact, user-generated content is one of the best ways to market and grow your business. The thing is, the majority of comments still use text. Luckily, with Heyoya you can now recreate the personal interactions of voice messages and WeChat style conversations on your own blog or website. Heyoya is a unique voice comments and reviews platform that brings sound to online interactions, making comments and reviews more trustworthy, engaging and fun. Adding audio to online communications brings together the fast-paced world of social media with the unique feeling of being face-to-face. And best of all, Heyoya can help you create results in China by significantly improving user-generated content, and increasing web traffic, sales conversions and brand affinity.

So how does it work?

It’s actually pretty simple: when surfing the web, users can respond to your articles, events and more by recording a voice comment or review through the Heyoya widget. You can also use Heyoya to upload your own voice content to your website. This is a great way to leave messages for your users, talk to them and hear what they have to say! Ultimately, by using the Heyoya widget, you can better leverage your comments sections to increase user engagement and create higher quality content, keeping users on your site for longer.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more important than ever and it is a crucial tool to leverage in order to help a business succeed. While there are many different marketing channels a company can choose, and multiple digital channels, SEO in many ways remains the foundation of a solid online presence. SEO has changed over the past few years but it isn’t going away anytime soon, so we’ve collected a few tips to make sure you make the best of it in 2017.

It’s time you invest more time on the content of your website. Research shows that relevant content is the most effective SEO tactic but it is also the most difficult to execute. Content that is interesting, engaging or fun to read is not longer enough, your content needs to be relevant and above all else, it must create value for your customers. If users find your content relevant and gain value from it, they’ll want to share it, and when they do your content will be seen on additional platforms, helping to drive more traffic to your website.

People like to share stories and information they like and trust, they share to get a word out about a cause or brand they care about, and they share in order to add value. 49% of consumers say that sharing allows them to inform others about products they care about and can encourage action or changing an opinion. Web content needs to be unique enough to make people want to share and talk about it. There are many ways to do this including creating a more personal tone and experience both through the type of stories shared and through the channels you choose to use (just think about how video and audio can help bring a more personal and trustworthy feel to your website compared to text alone).

We see. We click. We comment.

The main goal for any business is to attract users. According to Forrester, 93% of online experiences start with a search. The majority of search engine users are more likely to click one of the top 5 suggestions in the results page. This makes it all the more important to have effective SEO to optimize your website ranking and attract more customers.

Another way to raise your ranking by having the users leave comments. The more high-quality comments you have the more you will improve the ranking of your content. Leaving comments involves time and effort so it’s very important to make sure your comment platform has a seamless UX. A great alternative for comments is to try voice comments, this helps save users time and even go hands-free, while still being able to share their opinion. Using voice reviews can allow for a new kind of interaction as well as motivating the user to share what they think about products with their friends, once again spreading the word about the website and bringing attention to it. This is a win-win situation for the user and the website.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

The biggest friction point (58% of consumers agree) is when you think you’re buying a product for a certain price but when you reach the checkout point, the shipping and VAT kick in and suddenly your purchase is much more expensive than what you intended. This relates to the issue of trust. More money equals more anxiety and anxiety equals mistrust, friction and cart abandonment. So, how do we fix this? Simple. Write the total amount from the start or as early in the process as possible! Consumers prefer honesty than to think they’ve been tricked into choosing a specific product.

Security is key

Anxiety, which leads to friction points, can be caused by several reasons; the shoppers don’t have a sense of security, they may not be receiving enough information or perhaps it’s just because the UX isn’t smooth enough and makes them feel edgy. Let’s take a moment to talk about security. For example, consumers will feel more secure if the payment is done through a company they know and trust such as Paypal (and while you’re at it, add a few more options), as opposed to writing in their card details and hoping the site is secure. Focusing on communicating how secure your checkout is, is crucial. Besides using Paypal, another way to instill trust is to add a Google certified shop badge. This way an e-commerce merchant endorsement that shows that Google “identifies and stands behind stores that provide a consistently great shopping experience” and we all (well most of us) trust Google.

It’s all about timing

Here’s another little tip, at the checkout point, add a phone number to contact. You’ll be surprised how many buyers, especially new ones, have questions at checkout and if you’ll be available you just might be sidestepping another friction point and saving a lot of potential cart abandonments. Though having a live person available would be the optimal situation, it’s not always possible. Thankfully, a trend that will be growing strong this year are the chatbots, and when placed strategically at checkout they can offer the consumers the answers they need, reassuring the customer that he or she can trust the process.

Reviews everywhere

Another way to ensure trust is reviews. Sometimes on websites, users may be skeptical as to whether the reviews are real as are the users writing them. If all reviews are superb it also may cause mistrust as opposed to if there is a healthy mix of reviews with mostly satisfied customers while still having a few that were less so. Using voice in reviews can make them much more trustworthy since the consumer gets a real sense of the buyer’s opinions. Credibility is key and that’s why a lot of companies display the reviews in a central location on the home page as well as the specific product page. Another tip is to have the reviews in the checkout section as well. This way there is direct context and positive reviews to give them the boost to checkout. If you’re missing any of the above on your website, you’ve got some work to do.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.